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  Adventure of the Dancing Men The...

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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  "The Adventure of the Dancing Men", a Sherlock Holmes story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle published as The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 1905. Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" third in his list of his twelve favorite Holmes stories. This is one of only two Sherlock Holmes short stories where Holmes' client dies after seeking his help. The other is "The Five Orange Pips", part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The original title was "The Dancing Men, " when it was published as a short story in The Strand Magazine in December 1903. The story begins when Hilton Cubitt of Ridling Thorpe Manor in Norfolk visits Sherlock Holmes and gives him a piece of paper with the following mysterious sequence of stick figures. - Cubitt explains to Holmes and Dr. Watson that he has recently married an American woman named Elsie Patrick. Before the wedding, she had asked her husband-to-be never to ask about her past, as she had had some "very disagreeable associations" in her life, although she said that there was nothing that she was personally ashamed of. Their marriage had been a happy one until the messages began to arrive, first mailed from the United States and then appearing in the garden.

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  The Ministry of Fear

  Graham Greene

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  In London during the Blitz, an amnesiac must outwit a twisted Nazi plot in this “master thriller” of espionage, murder, and deception (Time).   On a peaceful Sunday afternoon, Arthur Rowe comes upon a charity fete in the gardens of a Cambridgeshire vicarage where he wins a game of chance. If only this were an ordinary day. Britain is under threat by Germany, and the air raid sirens that bring the bazaar to a halt expose Rowe as no ordinary man. Recently released from a psychiatric prison for the mercy killing of his wife, he is burdened by guilt, and now, in possession of a seemingly innocuous prize, on the run from a nest of Nazi spies who want him dead.   Pursued on a dark odyssey through the bombed-out streets of London, he becomes enmeshed in a tangle of secrets that reach into the dark recesses of his own forgotten past. And there isn’t a soul he can trust, not even himself. Because Arthur Rowe doesn’t even know who he really is.   “A storyteller of genius,” Graham Greene composed his serpentine mystery of authentic wartime espionage—and one the author’s personal favorites—while working for MI6 (Evelyn Waugh). But The Ministry of Fear “is more than a mere thriller . . . [it’s a] hypnotic moonstone of a novel” (The New York Times).

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  There Is Confusion

  Jessie Redmon Fauset

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  Jane Austen meets the Harlem Renaissance in this novel of three young, ambitious Black Americans striving for love and success in the big city. Set in 1920s New York City, There Is Confusion tells the story of three friends who grew up supporting one another’s dreams. But now that they are young adults, things are not so simple . . . First, there is Maggie Ellersley, who is eager to marry up and be free of her blue-collar background. Then, there is Peter Bye, an intelligent aspiring surgeon motivated by his love for Joanna Marshall. Joanna is a talented and driven dancer, who is about to make a decision that will change all their lives . . . Originally published in 1924, There Is Confusion received critical acclaim for its portrayal of middle-class Black America. Author Jessie Redmon Fauset served as literary editor of the NAACP’s official magazine, The Crisis, from 1919 to 1926 and fostered the careers of such Harlem Renaissance authors as Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Langston Hughes. “An important book.” —The New York Times

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  Great Expectations

  Charles Dickens

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  Here is the story of Pip and his mysterious rise from abused orphan to gentleman.  Magwitch, the brutal convict, withered Miss Havisham, still wearing her yellowed wedding gown, and the heartless and beautiful Estella, are vibrant characters.  Listen in to this superb story told with typical Dickensian warmth and humor and woven around unforgettable characters.

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  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

  Washington Irving

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  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a short story by American author Washington Irving, contained in his collection of 34 essays and short stories entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Written while Irving was living abroad in Birmingham, England, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was first published in 1820. Along with Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Nikolai Gogol

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  Between the Russian Empire and Europe warily sits Ukraine.  Her own history has been brush stroked either by periods of independence or under the oppressive yoke of other more powerful and belligerent neighbours. 
   
  It’s authors, almost always cited as ‘Russian’, or from ‘Little Russia’ are diverse and brilliant.  Some of them stayed, some moved to other lands but always their works harbour part of their Ukrainian souls despite the ever-changing territorial borders. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - The Ukrainians - An Introduction 
  2 - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol 
  3 - The Shades, A Phantasy by Vladimir Korolenko 
  4 - Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov 
  5 - A Witches Den by Helena Blavatsky 
  6 - The Informer by Joseph Conrad 
  7 - The Signal by Vsevolod Garshin 
  8 - The General's Will by Vera Jelihovsky 
  9 - The Blind Ones by Isaac Babel 
  10 - The Revolutionist by Mikhail Petrovich Artzybashev 
  11 - Dethroned by Ignaty Potapenko

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